https://youtu.be/4bbnLEK5B1Y?si=RY0CByN0i2gZgQHB
The history of radio broadcasting in Catalonia is fascinating: it's part of the country's history and of the pioneers that made it possible. Each political period has directly influenced the decisions of a group of enthusiasts marvelled by the opportunities with new technologies.
PRIMO DE RIVERA'S DICTATORSHIP
In 1923, Josep M. Guillén García, science graduate at Sorbonne University in Paris, and Eduard Solà, printer and radio enthusiast, create "Radiosola" magazine, specialised in radio. In September that same year, Guillén conducts some radio transmission and reception demonstrations at Montjuïc that achieve great echo and expectation. As director of "Radiosola" magazine, he writes a notice to summon industrialists and businessmen for a meeting in Carrer València, # 200 in Barcelona "in order to study the possibility of installing a radio broadcasting station in Barcelona and the creation of a cultural entity, consisting of those people or firms who had an interest in the development of this new form of broadcasting the human mind".
The meeting is attended by Eduard Rifà, Royston Saint Noble, Villaverde Zubeldía and Guillén García. Despite the small success, a second meeting is called with the excuse that a technical commission was created in the first one to prepare the entity's regulations and it was time to present it. This time, Radiosola's editorial office is filled and, on February 19th 1924, in the middle of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, theAssociació Nacional de Radiodifusió (ANR from its initials in Spanish) is founded and composed of engineers, industrialists and businessmen who want to build a radio. It will be EAJ1 Ràdio Barcelona. From this exceptional group, some names stand out, which will be the focus of this story of hindrances and persistence. You can learn about them here.
With the ANR just being founded, that same February, a committee composed of Noble, Rifà, Huet, Villaverde and Guillén takes charge of elaborating a permit to obtain a broadcasting licence that's presented to the Dirección General de Telégrafos. Rifà goes to Antwerp to buy the first radio station in Spain and the third one in Europe, right after Paris and London. The device is made by the Bell Telephone Company.
Broadcasting tests start on October 8th and the first broadcasts start on the 12th of the same month. Finally, on November 7th 1924, scheduled broadcasts of EAJ1 Ràdio Barcelona begin at the Colom Hotel. The antennas are on the roof. The studios are located on the 6th floor and, under the dome, is the Western Electric transmitter with 100 watts of power brought from New York. EAJ1 is allowed to broadcast 3 hours a day plus 15 minutes for advertisements. Everything was in Spanish. The official inauguration will be on the 14th with the city's main authorities and a speech by the mayor of Barcelona, Baró de Viver.
The station is in the Colom Hotel thanks to its manager, Miquel Regàs' predisposition. Just like Regàs, an exceptional network of necessary collaborators will help achieve the founders' successes, especially Eduard Rifà's personal network.
The agenda starts to become frenetic and, by the end of September, the ANR moves its offices to Carrer Casp, where the station will also be moved months later.
At the beginning of 1925, Barcelona has 60,000 radio listeners, of which only 1,000 are members of the ANR who contribute a 5 peseta monthly fee. This is the only source of income for the ANR to help the station work and it is not enough. To the listeners who aren't members of the ANR but benefit from the broadcasts without paying the fees, it is insisted that they pay to become members. These are the first people to criticize the programming or any technical anomaly without understanding that, with their contribution, the technical and programming improvements would arrive earlier. In one of his articles, Eduard Rifà cites London's BBC as an example of a model radio station thanks to the million members that support them.
In February 1925, voluntary fees are suggested, costing 3 pesetas, for those who want to collaborate and consider the 5 pesetas cost that protecting members pay is too high. 1 peseta stamps are issued and can be bought from authorized establishments.
Right now, Ràdio Barcelona's programming essentially broadcasts concerts. Unlike the Gran Teatre del Liceu, who instantly ease things in order to broadcast the operas that play there —seeing the diffusion advantages this will grant them—, the rest of Barcelona's theatres organise a common front to not allow the ANR to interfere in their schedule. Rifà will call them out in his article "Theater owners against Ràdio Barcelona":
"Those entities whose mission is to promote musical culture in our land should change their mind, they should not walk arm in arm with certain enemy elements of Ràdio Barcelona nor associate with the anti-cultural work these elements carry out to fight radio-telephony. Musical culture is not, has never been and will never be, heritage exclusive to a certain entity or any organisation. Music has to be the heritage of the people. And the further musical culture reaches and the more popular it becomes, the bigger will the work we all have worked on be". (La Publicitat, 15-3-1925)
Nevertheless, on January 10th 1925, the first big broadcast from the Liceu is made. Ràdio Barcelona will be the first station to broadcast entire operas through the radio.
The schedule keeps expanding and two brands that will define the station are born: the radio-charity for disadvantaged groups -they're the second one in Europe- and the contracting of who will become the first popular host, Josep "Toreski" Torres, who in the future will be accompanied by naughty Miliu.
In June 1925, Ràdio Catalana is founded and they will interfere constantly with the broadcasts from Ràdio Barcelona EAJ1. In Madrid, Unión Radio is created with the support of a solvent financial firm who will slowly want to seize all radios from other provinces. These two incidents will determine the future of EAJ1.
Meanwhile, novelties continue and, on the 28th of June, the first nighttime broadcast takes place for the Saint Peter festivities.
By September 1925, the ANR has 2,500 members and half a dozen industrialists to defray the concerts' costs. In order to improve the broadcasting quality and eliminate interferences and noise, the opening of a new station is planned, with 2 kilowatts of RF power and 10 kilowatts in the generator. It's the first of its kind in Europe. Manufactured by the International Western Electric in New York, it's acquired by the Bell Telephone Company, who asks for the station in Barcelona to be inaugurated at the same time as a similar station installed in Milan. But problems with finding a terrain to set it, the execution is delayed by 2 and a half months until they find a place for the new antenna. Finally, and thanks to Dr. Andreu -a pharmaceutical businessman- and Mr. Rubió, Western installs a new transmitter on Tibidabo hill, 20 times more powerful with an antenna placed at 582m above sea level. The name of Doctor Andreu is especially decisive because he's the one who gives up the terrains on Tibidabo and who personally covers the costs of moving the train route away from the recreational park that crosses one of these terrains. 6 km of cable will be needed between Tibidabo and Carrer Casp as well as 140 permits from homeowners. The new transmitter opens on the 25th of February 1926.
This new station has a range of between 80 and 100 km. They want to end the sorrow of villages and cities around Catalonia that could not receive proper transmissions from Ràdio Barcelona. A contest is organised to find a selective radio wave device that can favour the elimination of some interferences over others. With the radio being a new machine of which there isn't a lot of information on, the ANR has to partake in a pedagogical task about such an unknown invention to many. Many radio device shops sell bad receivers as good ones, producing the resulting annoyances for the listener who cannot listen to the programming correctly, gets angry with the ANR and puts the blame on them. Thus, the ANR decides to create a laboratory and a consultancy for people to ask whatever they want and inform themselves about the best devices. Also, a seal of quality is given to those with better performance.
The association has 3,000 members and it is calculated there are around 100,000 radio devices in Barcelona. With the Carrer Casp station stabilising, Ràdio Barcelona continues to expand its programming. At Rifà's initiative from "Ràdio Lot" magazine, with the collaboration of Josep M. Folch i Torres, the station's time signals will be broadcasted from Barcelona Cathedral.
The first football transmissions with sportswriter Joaquim Ventalló. Sports information is completed with some exclusive broadcasts such as the boxing fight celebrated at La Monumental arena between Uzcudun and Spalla.
The fight to keep the station afloat is constant and the pressure from Madrid is not helping. In 1926, a deal is forced to be signed with Unión radio Madrid. A change of regulations in the dictatorship that favours this company from the first moment will allow it to buy other radios. And the state forces a merge of both enterprises. Thus, Unión Radio enters the EAJ1 shareholders, which changes its name to Unión Radio Barcelona and begin a network of broadcasts with the other stations. It is November 1926.
How does the state force the deal? It is in this moment where witnesses place one of the periods that will determine the history of radio broadcasting. Under the threat of the dictatorship to each a deal or a new station is created in Barcelona that will serve as competition for Ràdio Barcelona, the members of the ANR Pau Llorens, Eduard Rifá and Saint Noble are held for 48 hours in the Dirección General de Seguridad in Madrid, in the office of minister Martínez Anido, the time to find a merger formula with Unión Radio, who will thus enter the Ràdio Barcelona shareholders body.
They are two different models. While the radio was to the ANR the perfect medium to spread culture and offer services to remote places, such as the countryside, to Unión Radio the radio was a commercial activity, a business with great possibilities to expand. And so, it will not take them long for the disagreements to arrive.
The ANR keeps a principle of independence in the development of shows and the associates' money is set aside for the costs of concerts, the offices and staff who rely on the association. But many members do not like relying on a centralist and opt out of the membership.
The ANR, while overcoming the obstacles that keep appearing time and time again, never stops working for the radio. On January 31st 1927, the radio weather service is opened, a proposal by Eduard Rifà from "Ràdio Lot" magazine with the involvement of the two best astronomers in the country: Josep Pratdesaba, an astronomy enthusiast from Vic, and Eduard Fontseré director of the Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya, with the contribution of father Manuel Cazador, from the Sant Julià de Vilatorta school for orphans, a lover of meteorology and radio. Soon they will have to ask permission from the authorities to make a summary of this information in "common language" since many fishermen and farmers do not understand it in Spanish.
The Quintet Ràdio Barcelona is created. Acts are organized around Catalonia to recruit more members and circulate different aspects of radio broadcasting. Conference cycles "that will prepare practical radio technicians to then teach them the necessary scientific theories". They create the radio charity on a proposal from the Oblates of Saint Benedict. The radio broadcasts concerts by the Barcelona Municipal Band, the Orfeó Català, the Pau Casals Orchestra, opera from the Gran Teatre del Liceu; Father Vallet's teachings; campaigns to promote the good use of the Catalan language with Ivon l'Escop; conferences about Catalan literature with Adrià Gual; folkloric discourses by Aureli Campmany; broadcasts of language courses, the stock exchange listing for cotton, sugar, coffee... and, by the end of 1928, the radio-pedagogy system debuts Regarding infrastructures, the 2.5 kilowatt transmitter is changed by one with 20 kilowatt of RF from the Standard Elèctrica brand to allow them to celebrate the 1929 Barcelona Universal Exposition.
In April 1929, Joaquim Sànchez i Cordovès, a young engineer, is appointed deputy director of Unión Radio Barcelona. Until now, he had been technical director in the radio and also directed the RB Laboratory along with Dr. Baltà i Elies and Dr. García Banús, professor of organic chemistry at University of Barcelona. Sànchez i Cordovés improves the transmissions and eliminate static noises, achieving results superior to those the manufacturer expected, obtaining a cheaper operation, doubling the power and sending broadcasts all 16 hours non-stop.
The dirty war by Unión Radio to finally take over the Catalan radio station continues. The smear campaign includes complaints, retentions and separatism accusations against Saint Noble, Llorens and Rifà and a slanderous crusade from the newspapers, to which Toresky would contribute through the EAJ1 microphone. Precisely, it will be Eduard Rifà who will suffer the most with police surveillance and house searches.
Thus, in August 1929, under the presidency of photographer Joan Sàbat, the Associació Nacional de Radiodifusió communicates they will stop collaborating with Unión Radio Barcelona. Noble, Llorens and Rifà stay in the ANR. Then, Unión Radio accuses them of scamming, but after a 2-year-long lawsuit, the Catalans win. The entity has 11,000 radio-listening members in Catalonia who pay in between 3 and 5 pesetas every month and Unión Radio cannot take it over despite attempting so, stealing the ANR's member listings.
Unión Radio wants the ANR to disappear because, according to them, without a radio station of their own, they have no reason to exist. But the ANR is Spain's most important radio listeners' association and this is proven by the Radio-Communication Inspecting and Technical Assembly when they name them their advisers in radio matters by the royal decree # 1712 from 26-VII-1929.
The ANR has made up its mind. They've been deprived of the station "for spreading their ideas on culture, art and charity and attempts have been made to strip them from their revenue". But the Association keeps on working to request a new station and expand their cultural, technical, artistic and charitable ideals; organizing radio technology courses; expanding the library; continuing hosting conferences; completing the radio-pedagogy project; creating a broadcasted job board... The associates name the delegates who will represent them for the designation of the board of directors.
On the 20th of November 1929, the Technical Board ends the Unión Radio Madrid monopoly, which had already absorbed, apart from the ANR's station, the stations in Seville, San Sebastián, another one in Madrid and the ones in Cádiz, Bilbao and Salamanca.
Right after splitting from Unión Radio, in September 1929, the ANR is already asking the state for a new frequency. Madrid lets them know extra-officially that it will take some time to get it because of who they are. For this reason, they still have a radio ham's short-wave transmitter with 100 watts that emits in a 45 meter wave on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (except holidays) from 9.30pm to 11.30pm, broadcasting the Association's news programme. It is EAR157 and it's set in Carrer Fontanella number 12. With very limited conditions, they broadcast news, music conferences... The short-wave radio is built thanks to the board members Lagoma, Vidal Prat, Morros, Eudald Aymerich and Vicente Guiñau.
Dictator Primo de Rivera steps down in January 1930. General Dámaso Berenguer is proclaimed president of the state. Two months later, the Associació Nacional de Radiodifusió's new licence authorization will arrive. It will become EAJ15 Ràdio Associació, but with a very limited schedule: only 3.5 hours every day, from 11.30am to 1pm and from 3pm to 5pm, time slots with very low audience and subject to cancellation "when the directorate general considers it convenient". The state's objective is to, once again, protect the Unión Radio stations. The hourly limit does not allow the Association to have many arguments to seduce their audience and advertisers. But they keep toiling away and in July 1930 they move the studios to Ronda Universitat number 25. The antenna is at Tres Torres, on some terrains given by member Vicenç Guiñau.
REPUBLIC AND CIVIL WAR
On April 14th 1931, politician Francesc Macià proclaims the Catalan Republic. Unión Radio Barcelona EAJ1 microphones are used to communicate it to the citizens. EAJ15 Ràdio Associació will not be able to be there due to their broadcasting time slots and they let now president Macià know through the station's editor Joaquim Ventalló. This event causes the drafting of the decree free scheduling disposal for Ràdio Associació in order to level the playing field. This is one of the few decrees Macià signs as president of the Catalan Republic.
For the radio's founders, a new phase starts. Broadcasting times increase gradually and the last regulatory obstacles are eliminated. The entity now has 10,000 active members and 20,000 registered ones. It is the only radio station in the world owned by radio amateurs. There are no shareholders. EAJ15 becomes the republic's great station that focuses on promoting the Catalan language and culture.
Joaquim Ventalló starts broadcasting football in Catalan and, on October 25th, the first issue of the Catalunya Ràdio magazine is released, directed by Tomàs Roig, father of journalist Montserrat Roig. It will be a publication of high-quality culture that will go beyond presenting the station's programming.
On May 21st 1932, Sabadellian Pau Abad manages to emit the first photograph through the radio. These broadcasts will be announced as another offer in the programming. Only French engineer Élouard Bèlin achieved a similar thing in 1917 with his belinograph, a machine that allowed the transmission of images through cable. Pau Abad perfected it after studying it for 10 years with an emitting device in which a photo-electric cell reads the image to transmit and transforms it in electric pulses that travel through the radio waves all the way to a receiver device that reproduces the original image. They are the first fax tests that come before the first ones with television.
The television: this is the great project some of the association's founders already have in their mind from the start, such as Eduard Rifà, with the mentality of a great audiovisual group. For this reason, the station has a powerful laboratory where Abad's machine is tested and where there's also a group of investigators working for the RAC (Ràdio Associació de Catalunya), among which there's Enric Calvet, Vicente Guiñau and Homer Teixidó.
In the year 1933, the name change starts. The republic's government approves a decree that "regulates" the term "national" and theAssociació Nacional de Radiodifusió decides in an assembly on January 29th to change its name to Ràdio Associació de Catalunya.
The station grows and moves to Rambla dels Estudis number 8. The association's president, Jaume Rosquellas, is the man behind all of this. The new premises open on April 3rd with a leading model of space distribution and the philosophy of an entity: all the material is manufactured in Catalonia under the station's director Homer Teixidó.
EAJ15 has a team of 14 professors and organizes all kinds of contests: about literature, music, news reports, humour. In this sense, we must highlight the child contest about the history of Catalonia and almost 5,000 participants and a house in Valldoreix as a prize, sponsored by "La Lechera". President Macià will lay the foundations for it.
It is a period of frantic activity at EAJ15. There's so much radiophonic activity both inside and outside the recording room with a spectacular capacity for mobilisation. One of the most notable cases was the campaign for the restoration of the Poblet Monastery according to historian and Egyptologist Eduard Toda's proposal. Town councils, schools and 70,000 radio listeners mobilized to contribute to the restoration with donations and queuing in long lines of cars to visit it.
The territorial view is very present through delegates and radio fanatic groups. For this reason, the association pushes forward a great territorial network. It begins with the start-up of EAJ38 Ràdio Girona opened on December 10th 1933 at the Girona Ateneu under the direction of Alexandre Figa and with Homer Teixidó as construction engineer. The first radio hosts will be Paquita Boris, who will later move to Barcelona, and Maria Lluïsa Figa.
Exactly one month later, EAJ42 Ràdio Lleida opens, installed in Casa Llorens, in Lleida's Carrer Major, number 92, near the town hall. 8 months later, Ràdio Associació reaches a cooperation agreement with EAJ33 Ràdio Tarragona, property of the city's Press Association.
RAC's radio station network broadcast joint programming as well as in-house programming, which makes it easier for them to become the main guide for closer territorial information and gather local publicity.
In an assembly on December 23rd 1934, the members of Ràdio Associació, with Pau Llorens as their president, decide to become a cooperative to push new projects, like a benefit society or a bank.
"Catalunya Ràdio" magazine transforms into "L'Instant. Diari de la Nit" newspaper in January 1935 under the tutelage of Eduard Rifà. The newspaper-radio cooperation is total and collects the radio-broadcasting activity, especially, from EAJ15.
EAJ15 Ràdio Associació has 100 workers and 500 collaborators. In May, the foundations for new radio-broadcasting facilities on a 30,000 m2 terrain purchased in Viladecans with the radio as well as the new television project in mind. The main piece is a large Telefunken transmitter that will reach the border on July 14th 1936. It will never reach Barcelona.
On July 18th 1936, there's a coup d'etat. On July 27th, the Catalan government, the Generalitat, seizes the two Barcelona stations: EAJ1 and EAJ15. They will go on to unify the information about the war and some programmes.
Teodor Garriga is appointed to delegate of the Generalitat in Ràdio Associació. But the radiophonic landscape changes in the capital. In addition to the two well-known radios, , there will be Ràdio CNT-FAI, Ràdio Moscou, Ràdio PSUC, Ràdio POUM and PSUN, PSUC-UGT and ERC (belonging to several political parties and labour unions).
"L'Instant" newspaper goes on to be controlled by the labour movement fond of the CNT. During this period, it will keep being published mostly in Catalan.
On January 26th 1939, Franco's troops enter Barcelona. Only Ràdio Associació is broadcasting due to Ràdio Barcelona not working. They go straight to La Rambla, where the most popular host, Rosalia Rovira, is. The new regime will not allow Rosalia Rovira to ever step foot in a radio station again. She will be arrested and will suffer retaliation during the whole Franco regime. Rosa Trias , Ismael Cera, Pérez Vilar, and all others who did not exile will also be retaliated.
Francoism seizes Ràdio Associació, Ràdio Lleida and Ràdio Girona.
One of the first measures taken in EAJ15 is banning the use of Catalan. The station starts to lose its essence that disappears completely with the name change from Ràdio Associació de Catalunya to Ràdio Espanya de Barcelona.
When the war ends, Ràdio Associació's pioneers have built and lost five stations for reasons of state: EAJ1 Ràdio Barcelona who is given to Unión Radio, EAJ15 Ràdio Associació de Catalunya, EAJ38 Ràdio Girona and EAJ42 Ràdio Lleida. Lastly, the transmitter that had to arrive to start the television broadcast tests is diverted in the border to build the Francoist station in Radio Salamanca, which later will become Radio Nacional de España (RNE).
From then on, and during the dictatorship, the Catalan language is forbidden and it is mandatory to tune into the RNE news bulletin, created by Franco.
On April 8th 1941, the Franco regime proceeds with closing the cooperative and communicates it by mail to all members of RAC. Allegedly, this closure was agreed on in an extraordinary general assembly —of which the members knew nothing about— and according to what is established in article 43 of the statutes. Article 43, however, does not say anything about the cooperative while it does in 1938, where it's established that they need the approval from three quarters of the paying members in order to break up the company. Thus, on August 7th 1941, the cooperative becomes a public limited company and is renamed to Ràdio España Barcelona. The new company is built with 600,000 pesetas in resources. (6,500 nominal shares for 50 pesetas; 550 shares for 200 pesetas and 330 shares for 500 pesetas) Some members receive 50-peseta shares from the new company, but they are not allowed to attend the assemblies if they do not have more than 500 pesetas in shares. Most of the shares are left in hands of those who took it over on January 25th 1939.
The Spanish Radio-broadcasting Society (SER) buys the shares but cannot legally have interests in other radio stations. For this reason they give up 44% of their shares to a banker (Ramón Rato); 12% are given to one of the people who dissolved the cooperative (Gonçal Serraclara) and the last 44% is given in a personal capacity to the executives at SER (Eugenio FOntan and Ramón Varela).
THE RETURN TO DEMOCRACY
A few months after Franco's death, the path to recover Ràdio Associació de Catalunya (RAC) begins. In December 1976, a group of people linked to EAJ15, such as Teodor Garriga, organise a tribute to the great radio host Rosalia Rovira i Duart at Hotel Orient. This act will light the spark to start over Ràdio Associació de Catalunya. A civic committee is created with the objective to start heading to the recovery of RAC. Salvador Jordà i Olario presides this committee.
In 1977, the Catalan Culture Congress is celebrated, where the recovery of lost patrimony during the civil war and the dictatorship is supported and the old members of RAC's petition to recover the Catalan station is collected.
Finally, in 1980, RAC is reinstated with 2 main objectives:
1.- Create a cooperative society that allows them to request an FM licence from the state's authorities to broadcast again.
2.- Have the legal status to try to recover the patrimony robbed in 1939.
On June 20th that year, a Governing Council is chosen to appoint a committee to carry out the procedures to obtain the licence.
On January 25th 1982, Teodor Garriga, custodian of the RAC brand as well as many recordings from Catalan political leaders during the civil war and the dictatorship, gives up by notarial act the exploitation of the brand to the president of RAC's Governing council.
From September 27th to October 4th 1982, a set of broadcasting tests take place in the Gran Hotel La Florida, on mount Tibidabo, from 7 p.m to 9 p.m, with the goal to speed up the station's recovery. The first voice to once again say the name of the Ràdio Associació de Catalunya is radio host Pepa Palau, who will always remember it as a great honour. When the machines failed, the transmitter worked with the battery from Pepa's car.
There is an intriguing episode that points to Catalan president Josep Tarradellas' role in the rimes of democratic recovery. From what it could be made out from the reading of new localised documents and was reflected in witnesses and reports, at the time of the transition, the owners of Ràdio Barcelona were somewhat restless when facing the change from the Francoist regime to democracy. It seems that the main owners (Rato 44%, Fontan i Valera 44% and Serraclara 12%) had pretty much decided to give up the ownership of EAJ15 to its legitimate owners and negotiations were very advanced. The uncertainty about what would happen during the transition made them become predisposed to accept proposals. But when the end was close, Josep Tarradellas said that he would negotiate "this folder" along with other matters in a meeting he had to attend in Madrid. After that, nothing was heard from that folder and the people who contacted the owners saw they refused to negotiate. Teodor Garriga remembers this episode with such anger and major indignation towards Josep Tarradellas that he suspects there has been a swap with other issues, harming the RAC folder.
On December 23rd 1982, RAC SCCL obtains, by the agreement of the Generalitat's executive council, the license to become a VHF and FM station in the municipality of Barcelona, with a power of 16,000 watts and a frequency of 105MHz.
In the agreement on May 24th 1983, the Governing Council decides to give up the station to the Generalitat. Thus, on June 7th, Lluís Prenafeta as a government representative and Teodor Garriga, Ignasi Ponti and Jaume Biosca as RAC representatives, sign the licence transfer. This same year, Teodor Garriga is named the Radio Association's president of Honor in an assembly.
In 1988, the Executive Council delays the operation of the station to RAC by 10 years.
On October 17th 1998 the frequency licence ends and RAC wants to request another 10 year extension, but the current legislation does not allow licences to be renewed automatically. Instead, they are cancelled and the corresponding frequencies go out to public tender in an exclusively private sphere. Since the RAC does not have enough economic capacity to carry out the exploitation of the radio and to secure the licence's continuity, in an assembly on July 28th 1998, a collaboration offer with a radio company linked to the Godó group, RADIOCAT XXI, is accepted. An agreement is reached with RAC, as the title holder of the licence, to congest the exploitation of FM 105 along with RADIOCAT XXI; Catalan will be the language used in the two stations to be created (the continuity of RAC 105 and a new, more conventional station, RAC1). In addition to that, two delegates from RAC join the RADIOCAT XXI board of directors.
The new station is renamed to RAC1 and it opens on May 2nd 2000. The following frequencies (FM) can be heard:
Barcelona 87.7
Tarragona 99.2
Lleida 90.5
Girona 100.1
Sitges-Garraf 94.1
The year before, in 1999, the Ràdio Associació de Catalunya wins the National Radio-broadcasting Award from la Generalitat in the context of the 75th year celebration of the radio and the Service Cooperative Federation gives them the award for most outstanding cooperative. In September of 2000, they're given the Generalitat's Sant Jordi's Cross award.
At the same time as these news, the cooperative carries out activities with the goal of restoring their objectives. They organise radio seminars with Catalonia's main professionals (from 1989 to 1998), the Eduard Rifà Radio Script Awards (from 1987 to 1997) and the Ignasi Ponti award for memorial proximity radio program production (from 1994 to 1998).
THE ACTIVITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
In the year 2001, the entity begins the project for the Radio Association Awards with the intention of distinguishing and awarding the Catalan-speaking radio professionals and the best programmes of the last year. They award honours to the best radio programme and best local radio program. award for innovation, best podcast (since 2025) and best professional. In the 2005 and 2006 editions, the ceremony is accompanied by the celebration of Radio Day.
Since the 2003 edition, apart from the radio awards, the 1924 Award with which the jury rewards the Catalan-speaking production in the audiovisual sphere, meaning television, publicity, cinema... It gets its name from the year the Associació Nacional de Radiodifusió, forefather to the Ràdio Associació de Catalunya, started the first speaking means of communication: Ràdio Barcelona.
2024 was an extraordinary celebratory date that generated lots of activity: THE COMMEMORATION OF THE RADIO'S 100TH ANNIVERSARY. Why does the Ràdio Associació de Catalunya celebrates the centenary of the radio and its pioneers? Because on the 19th of February 1924, a group of engineers and businessmen create the Associació Nacional de Radiodifusió (ANR) and give start to EAJ1 Ràdio Barcelona. In January 1933, this association will have to change its name to the Ràdio Associació de Catalunya.
